I took this in the school garden, surrounded by second graders, while attempting to take 3D shots with my Lytro camera. I ended up having to crop this because of some blurriness on the left. (Second graders can be so distracting,) Unfortunately there is no editing capability with the Lytro. (What you see is what you get, except for changing focus) so I converted the original into a jpg and did some judicious cropping. The kids assured me this was a Monarch with his wings folded. I can neither confirm nor deny the identify of this individual, but I did find it interesting that he parked himself upside down
Well, I hate to disappoint a class of 8 year olds, but it is not a Monarch. But I think they will actually like its real name- Painted Lady. It's also called the Thistle Butterfly because the caterpillar likes to feed on the Thistle plants as well as burdock, sunflowers and occasionally hollyhock. (And from the looks of it, this one is hanging onto a Thistle plant.) Great shot Allison!
